A forced marriage is where one or both people do not consent to the marriage and
pressure or abuse is used. The UK Government estimate that up to 8000 cases of forced marriage happen each year in the UK alone; most include a female victim. In 2011, they began a consultation process on introducing a law to make the practice a criminal offence. 

SI Bilston and District co-ordinated a UK-wide Soroptimist awareness-raising and lobbying campaign, which contributed to new legislation, due to come in to force in May this year. Jackie Brookes, Joan Lee, Sue
Orton, Programme Action Officers for SI Bilston &
District, introduce the project. 

This is the latest in our series of SoroptiVoice blogs focussing on Projects of Excellence identified in the SI Global Impact Report 2012-13. 

In 2007, Bilston Club members’ attention was
drawn to a news article about Forced Marriage (FM) and Honour Based Crime (HBC)
in the UK.  We were appalled by the
information and were keen to do more research on the subject.  In
April 2007 Forced Marriage was condemned by the Prime Minister, and in July The
Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act came into being.

Members continued
to monitor facts and figures as they were reported.  In 2011 there had been 1500 cases investigated of young women forced into
marriage in the United Kingdom.  At the
same time it was reported that there had been 12 so called honour killings and
2800 honour crimes. The following year the Government estimated that 8000 young
women had been forced into marriage, again in the United Kingdom.  The charity Karma Nirvana was receiving over
500 telephone calls per month from victims to their help-line.

There had been fantastic reports about
Jasvinder Sanghera , Chief Executive of Karma Nirvana who
had spoken at the UKPAC Study Day.  The
club was increasingly concerned about problems of FM and the increased number
of so-called honour crimes in the UK. Programme Action Officers monitored press
reports.  Members of SI Bilston were keen to
become more informed and to raise awareness of others: to make a difference to
vulnerable girls.

The club invited Jasvinder to speak in June
2011 to an audience of approximately 200 Soroptimists and local professionals including police, social workers, solicitors and Women’s Aid
workers.  In order to support the evening
we sought and received sponsorship from West Midlands Police, Proceeds of Crime
Fund.

 

Jasvinder spoke passionately about Forced  Marriage, answered questions  and was able 
to counsel  victims who were in
the audience.  The evening raised £3000
for Karma Nirvana, Jasvinder’s charity supporting victims of FM. The event was
a great success and Bilston Club was motivated to continue support for Karma
Nirvana.

In December 2011 the Home Office launched
an online consultation about the criminalisation of Forced Marriage.  Bilston and Lichfield Clubs met to create a
suggested template of responses to the Home Office online consultation and
presented a report to Midland Chase Region meeting.  Bilston consulted other agencies including ADAVU,
Hope 4 Justice and Purple Teardrop for comments and amendments to the template.

The UKPAC webmaster  placed on the UKPAC website details of Home Office
consultation and a link to our template. Bilston club notified the appropriate
Assistant Programme Directors, Federation Councillors and an article subsequently
appeared in Programme Action Magazine (PAM).

At the same time Karma Nirvana developed a postcard
campaign to add strength to the Home Office online consultation.  Bilston members, with the help of Lichfield
Club, sent 5 cards and addressed return envelopes to Soroptimist clubs in UK to
be returned to Bilston for collation before being sent to Karma Nirvana.  Clubs were asked also to inform their
friendship link clubs. Postcards were distributed at a UKPAC meeting to all
regional UKPAC members.  This was the
outcome:

Soroptimist Clubs responded as follows:-

• Clubs responding -104
• In favour of criminalisation – 92%
• Against – 8%

The cards were sent to Karma Nirvana which
Jasvinder delivered personally to the Prime Minister. At least 5 other Soroptimist clubs
completed Programme Focus Report Forms as a direct result and others invited
speakers on the subject to their clubs.

Bilston members were delighted with the
positive result of the Consultation and to learn that the criminalisation of
Forced Marriage will be made law by May 2014. The whole project was very worthwhile,
engaging all Bilston club members and raising the awareness of many
Soroptimists. The FM Protection Orders currently in place had not been used
extensively but the new legislation will support vulnerable girls in the UK and
give a clear message to the perpetrators.

We feel that we have helped to make a
difference to girls in the UK and that the new legislation will educate,
empower and enable vulnerable girls.

So what did we learn?

• The power of the Soroptimist network.
• The
  benefit of using technology.
• The importance of partnerships.
• The need to identify and respond to the plight
  of vulnerable women and girls in this country.
• The benefit of working directly with powerful
  women such as Jasvinder Sanghera.

In some new
developments, Bilston
Club is now working with Wolverhampton Domestic  Violence Forum, holding meetings with Wolverhampton Safeguarding
Staff and working on a briefing paper with Jasvinder to
help local schools identify girls at risk of being forced into marriage. It is
hoped that such a paper can rolled out to schools in the UK.

Read about Forced Marriage Consultation (UK) on the Global Impact Report website.

The SI Global Impact Report 2012-13 highlights 39 Soroptimist Projects of Excellence from around the world to educate and inspire.